This is a lexical entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur across his various books, and connects its multiple usages.
This entry belongs to the Shahrur glossary. For reading by theme, one may refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
The meaning according to Shahrur
Sin is guilt or wrongdoing when it is accompanied by persistence in disobedience and the abandonment of repentance, so that the offense becomes not a passing lapse but an enduring state indicating a hardening of the will in error. In this sense, it is more severe than a guilt that may occur and then pass away, and closer to an aggravated moral responsibility in which what is expected is not merely pardon but the cessation of persistence and a return.
Distinctions
- It differs from incidental guilt, which occurs without persistence and in which its doer does not remain fixed, because sin presupposes continuity in transgression
- It also differs from a bad deed when it is used merely to denote an evil act; it becomes a sin when it is coupled with persistence and rejection of repentance.
Places in his books
- Islam and the Human Being: sin is guilt or wrongdoing when they are coupled with persistence and lack of repentance, that is, when error turns into a fixed stance. It is therefore more severe than incidental guilt and enters the sphere of the more serious moral judgment within the source’s conception of responsibility
What it neighbors and differs from
- guilt
- bad deed
- Human Islam is reconstituted Qur’anically as a system of values, freedom, and citizenship that transcends closed identity
- Islam precedes the Muhammadian message historically and conceptually
- The distinction between guilt, bad deed, and sin distributes responsibility between forgiveness, reform, and persistence
- guilt, bad deed, and sin
- The Qur’anic method and the redefinition of concepts move Islam from identity to values